The invention relates to a tension terminal station of an overhead carrier-hauling cable transport installation, extending in a closed loop along the line between two stations and to which cars running between the two stations are suspended by coupling grips.
At least one of the stations includes
a return pulley on which said cable passes;
a disengagement device of the cars at the entrance to the station;
an engagement device of the cars at the exit from the station;
a transfer rail extending in the extension of the line in the station, to guide the cars detached from the cable from the entrance to the exit of the station, passing on loading and/or unloading platforms, the rail is in the shape of a half-loop passing round the pulley;
a support carriage of the pulley which is slidably mounted on a longitudinal axis of the line connecting the two stations;
a tension device biasing the carriage in the tension direction of the carrier-hauling cable.
The invention is described hereafter as being applied to a detachable chairlift, but it is clear that it can be applied to other similar installations, such as gondola lifts or bucket cableways.
The stations of the kind mentioned are equipped with devices to vary the length of the line in terms of the load to keep the tension of the carrier-hauling cable appreciably constant. To achieve this, the support carriage of the return pulley may slide, due to the action of a jack or any other tension system, in the longitudinal direction of the line. In certain installations, these sliding movements are great and require free space, which impose layout constraints of the other parts making up the station. In particular, the trajectory of a transfer rail, running round the return pulley, must be sufficiently long so as not to hinder the movements of the pulley and the length of the station may depend thereon. It has already been proposed to move the pulley toward the rear of the transfer rail, but this arrangement complicates the overall layout of the station.